奇速英语

China’s Ding Liren beat Russian-born Ian Nepomniachtchi in a 20-day stand off in Kazakhstan on Sunday. The young man’s victory means China now holds both the men’s and women’s world titles. ____1____ Here are some curious qualities and facts about him:

1) He started winning early.

____2____ He first won at China’s national junior chess championship at the age of five while competing against other players his age. He would go on to top his age group many times over at the junior championships well into his teens. At the age of just 16 years old he shocked the chess world by beating several experienced grandmasters to win the tournament, becoming the youngest Chinese chess champion in history.

2) He’s a successful scholar.

____3____ His father, Ding Wenjun, says that before 2009, he and his wife had considered the now world champ to be “a student who could play chess”. But after his success in the Chinese Chess Championship, they felt that “the positioning may have to be changed to a student-type chess player.” 

3) ____4____ 

In 1986, when the Chinese Chess Association was formally established, its training team gathered in Beijing and worked out a “four-step” strategy which has in various forms been carried through all the way to 2023. The first step was to win the women’s individual world championship; the second, to take the women’s team world championship; the third, to work towards the men’s team world championship; and finally, to win the men’s individual world champion. ____5____ It’s so exciting.

A. Ding is still a young man, but he’s very much used to winning. 

B. Because Ding is such a strong player, it usually works out for him.

C. It was apparent Ding was a solid student with academic promise.

D. Ding has successfully worked such strategies into his own game now.

E. But what do we really know about the chess grandmaster?

F. After nearly 40 years, Ding has brought that dream to reality.

G. He’s completed China’s decades-old “four-step chess strategy”.